One of my favorite books is Dirt, The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, by William Bryant Logan, which I read years ago, when I was up to my eyeballs in mud, making ovens and houses and doing all kinds of mud work in schools and communities. Then I slowly found myself more and more absorbed in wood, and discovered a new title, Oak: Frame of Civilization. By that time, apparently, Logan had gone from working as Writer-in-Residence at the Church of St. John the Divine in NYC, to working as an arborist. This new book begins when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC asks him to pollard some Plane trees . . .
The value of a wooden spoon
what is value? This is a family's "favorite wooden spoon," made by an anonymous Haitian*, and sold cheap at an import store. It became the basis for another essay on the value of a wooden spoon, and has become part of this one. The economy of wares: the value of a wooden spoonWhen I can, I sell wooden spoons and bowls direct, person to person. I want people to be able to handle things, see some of the process, chat, build relationships — and burn less gas…. If all exchange happened that way, in time, perhaps, the value of things would change from dollars and numbers to life and love. In the . . .
cob ovens, spoon carving, & other workshops for 2019
May 18-19, cob oven workshop at the Artisan Baking Center in Petaluma California, details hereJune 22-23, cob oven workshop at the Prairie Mountain Folkschool in Joseph, Oregon, details hereAugust 17-18, A two day Greenwood Carving class (from simple to more complex), at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, Oregon, details hereJune & August Greenwood Spoon Carving classes, dates TBA, Corvallis Art center, Oregon, details should be posted here soon!July 21-27 I'll be teaching greenwood spoon-carving at Echoes-in-time, another primitive skills . . .